Supreme Court health reform decision: What's next for Oregon?

With the Supreme Court largely upholding the federal health reform law, here's a snapshot of what's next for Oregon.

NUMBER OF UNINSURED: 612,000 state residents
are uninsured, or about 16 percent.

WHERE THE STATE STANDS:
Oregon is working aggressively to implement the health care law and is farther
along than most other states. The federal government has committed more than
$60 million in grants to develop a health insurance exchange that could be
duplicated in other states.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW: State
officials will continue creating the exchange so it’s ready to be implemented by
2014. They’ll also press ahead with Gov. John Kitzhaber work to create
“coordinated care organizations” to lower Medicaid costs. The regional
organizations would be responsible for integrating mental, medical and dental
care for Medicaid patients and intensively managing chronic conditions like
diabetes to keep patients out of the hospital. The Obama administration has
tentatively agreed to give Oregon nearly $2 billion to help implement it.
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Throughout
the day, watch for updates on oregonlive.com/health and for a full report in
Friday’s Oregonian as reporters Charles Pope, Nick Budnick, Joe Rojas-Burke and
Keldy Ortiz talk to political leaders, health care providers and consumers about
what the ruling means to them and what’s next for Oregon’s health reform agenda.